What you need to know about exporting Ngā āhuatanga me mōhio mō te hoko whakawaho

• Prices: How do you set prices? 
• Foreign exchange: How changeable is the exchange rate? Are changes likely to wipe out your profits? 
• Finance: What are your trade terms? Do you need trade finance in case your customer takes a long time to pay? How will you get extra money to scale up or help with cashflow?
• Tax: How much will you pay? When, and in which country?

• Supply chain: What’s the best way to get your raw materials, goods or services from one country to another?
• Tariffs, customs, and duties: How much will you have to pay? How long will your goods take to clear customs? 
• Freight costs and logistics: Will you have to deliver to your customer’s door, or does your customer arrange the freight and logistics? Who applies for any special permits, for example dangerous goods? Make sure both parties know who’s doing what. 
• Export regulations: What are the import rules in the country you’re selling to?

• Market representation: Do you need sales staff, or can a distributor sell on your behalf?
• Marketing and sales: Will you use a website, social media, or both? Will you exhibit at trade shows? 
• Packaging: What kind of packaging will you need for your new market? Think about things like design, labelling requirements and bar codes.

• Risk and product liability: What insurance do you need? For example, do you need insurance for non-payment?
• Intellectual property protection: Who owns the intellectual property? What rights does the customer have? Do you need to set up trademarks? Talk to an intellectual property specialist.
• Legal considerations: What sort of customer contracts do you need? What do you need to consider about data integrity, privacy and business structure?

• Language: How much of another language will you need to learn?
• Culture: What do you need to know to make things run smoothly or at least avoid making mistakes?

If you set up a new company, you’ll need to register it for things like tax, GST, payroll taxes and superannuation.

Ask the companies office in the relevant country if you need to provide accounts for auditing or other purposes.

Setting up a bank account overseas can be more complicated and time consuming than many people realise. For example, you’ll need to get documents certified and perhaps translated. You may have to be at the bank in person. 

New Zealand banks don’t always have strong relationships with overseas banks, so your local bank may not be able to support you fully.

You might be able to get your money out through a management fee, a royalty or software licensing. 

You’ll have to pay withholding taxes or dividends on royalties. If you send a dividend from Australia to New Zealand, your Australian company won’t have to pay tax, but your New Zealand company may have to pay tax when it pays out the dividends to shareholders. 

You might need a resident director (a director who lives in the other country). For example, Australia requires resident directors. 

You might need a lawyer in the other country to check standard terms and conditions, or an accountant to advise on tax.

Choose your business structure